388 DR. HAYES' TERRIBLE BOAT TRIP 



clothing; casting now and then wistful glances on the sea, and wondering 

 impatiently 'when the ice will open?' Petersen shot a fox and a young bur- 

 gomaster-gull; the former was secured, but the latter fell into the sea and 

 floated away with the tide. Although the men suffer morally, they improve 

 physically. The cochlearia has driven from their systems every trace of 

 scurvy; and the few good meals of fresh animal food which we have eaten 

 have built up all of us and filled out our cadaverous cheeks. 



The ice opened at last, and the party put to sea, only to be caught in the 

 ice, and to drift for hours on a floe. 



"That we should feel despondent under the circumstances was, perhaps, 

 quite natural; but now, as on other occasions, there was exhibited in the 

 party a courage which triumphed over the distressing fortunes of the day. 

 Stories, such as sailors alone can tell, followed the coffee, and interrupted 

 the monotonous chattering of teeth; and Godfrey, who had a penchant for 

 negro melodies, broke out from time to time with scraps from 'Uncle Ned,' 

 in all its variations, 'Susannah,' and 'I'm off to Charlestown, a little while 

 to stay.' Petersen recited some chapters from his boy-life in Copenhagen 

 and Iceland; John gave us some insight into a 'runner's' life in San Fran- 

 cisco and Macao ; Whipple told some horrors of the forecastle of a Liverpool 

 packet; but Bonsall drew the chief applause, by 'Who wouldn't sell a farm 

 and go to sea?' 



"A strange mixture of men crowded the tent on that little frozen raft, in 

 that dark stormy night of the Arctic Sea! There were a German astronomer, 

 a Baltimore seaman, a Pennsylvania farmer, a Greenland cooper, a Hull 

 sailor, an East River boatman, an Irish patriot, and a Philadelphia student 

 of medicine ; and it was a singular jumble of human experience and adven- . 

 ture which they related. 



"We were near being precipitated into the water during the night. An 

 angle of the raft on which rested one of the tent poles, split off; two of the 

 men who lay in that corner were carried down, and their weight was almost 

 sufficient to drag the others overboard. Fortunately the bottom and sides 

 of the tent were fast together, or two of us at least would have gone into 

 the sea. 



"September 15th. The air cleared a little as the morning dawned; and, 

 although it continued to snow violently, we were conscious of being near 

 some large object, which loomed high through the thick atmosphere. Whether 

 it was land or an iceberg we could not make out. We were soon in the boats, 



